The present invention relates to a rotary wing aircraft rotor blade, and more particularly to a rotor blade tip spar arrangement.
Conventional rotary wing aircraft rotor blades often include a tip section of a selected sweep, taper, and form to improve the blade performance. Anhedral tip sections increase hover performance and lift capabilities of a rotary wing aircraft on which the blades are fitted without increasing the structural features of the main rotor hub and spindle.
The tip section of the main rotor blade is subjected to the greatest stresses/strains due to aerodynamic forces, and concomitantly experiences the greatest structural degradation due to wear and abrasion (due to the high rotational velocity of the main rotor blade tip), during operation of the helicopter main rotor assembly. These forces are only increased upon a tip section which utilizes an anhedral or other non-straight form.
Disadvantageously, a tip section that utilizes a non-straight form may be relatively difficult and expensive to manufacture. For example, current anhedral tip sections require numerous structural components to carry the loads induced by the anhedral form. Current anhedral tip sections each require two structural anhedral tip skins and two structural honecomb core pieces along with non-structural pieces and redundant fasteners. Structural components may cost five times that of non-structural components. Furthermore, structural components require multiple expensive manufacturing, and in some instances proprietary, processes to produce the anhedral tip sections.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an inexpensive rotor blade tip section that is applicable to anhedral form, minimizes the number of structural components, yet avoids adversely affecting the load bearing capabilities of the rotor blade.